Agusan town sets stringent rules for unvaccinated residents

EXAMPLE | Mayor William Calvez of Trento, Agusan del Sur, gets his second COVID-19 jab in December 2021 to set an example for residents to be vaccinated. (Photo from his Facebook)

TRENTO, Agusan del Sur, Philippines — Officials here have started enforcing stringent policies on residents who have yet to be fully inoculated against COVID-19 in a bid to increase its vaccination coverage to 80 percent of the local population.

Mayor William Calvez last week issued Executive Order No. 008, dubbed as the “No Vaccine, No Benefits” policy, which would not allow unvaccinated residents to transact business at the municipal hall.

At the same time, the municipal council also passed Ordinance No. 0157 regulating the mobility of unvaccinated persons in the town.

Municipal Information Officer Allen Joe Lumanta said on Saturday that the mayor’s directive would also deny aid to indigent residents who would refuse to get vaccinated, such as financial, medical, and burial assistance.

Ordinance No. 0157 was even more stringent, as it sought to restrict the movement of unvaccinated workers in both private, public offices, and commercial establishments unless they would submit a negative result of a PCR test for COVID-19 every two weeks, at their own expense.

Target

Further, Calvez also ruled that unvaccinated residents would not get support from the municipal government to gain access to the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced Workers (Tupad) program of the Department of Labor and Employment.

Tupad is a community-based package of assistance that provides emergency employment for displaced workers, underemployed and seasonal workers, for a minimum period of 10 days and up to a maximum of 30 days.

Calvez said while his town has achieved 72-percent vaccination coverage, they wanted to increase it to 80 percent in order for its risk classification to be downgraded from alert level 2 to alert level 1, a goal set by the Agusan del Sur provincial leadership.

“I [would] really like to have our local economy return to normal but we could never be lowered down to alert level 1 if we cannot achieve the 80-percent herd immunity among the local population,” Calvez explained.

The 80-percent full vaccination target of the province was agreed upon by the Provincial Health Office and the rural health units in the municipalities to ensure Alert Level 1 status.

RELATED STORIES

Reproduction rate of COVID-19 up in April

WHO warns of new COVID surge in 2 months, urges PH to prepare

Gov’t adviser notes ‘early signals’ of another COVID surge